Sometimes you are looking for something specific for your home. You get an idea in your head and you have to have it right this minute. You hop in the car and drive to the nearest store. You wander down the aisles and realize maybe you are the only person who had this idea, or you're crazy because now you are muttering to yourself.
What's a girl to do? This isn't about me I swear, how embarrassing to be muttering and answering yourself. hee hee!
This years muttering session came from my idea to have square wreaths in our Christmas decor on the 2 doors of our main floor instead of the standard round 16 incher. During a pow wow session with my mom we were discussing my need of a new Christmas tree this year because our previous artificial tree had a minor mishap of losing its head. *lightbulb moment*
What if I cut up my old tree? hmmmm
Easier said than done. I had to get some manhands to cut through the heavy duty branch wires but, once we got past that we were on a roll.
We made square wreath forms out of banded metal (I am sure there are square wreath forms out there but, my patience didn't hold out and these were FREE)
i precut a bunch of floral wire lengths and went to wrapping. starting in 2 corners and working around the frame until full.
this is the wreath with no ornamentation just the tree parts. i purchased 3 evergreen picks that included cypress, eucalyptus, and pinecones to add more interest to the greenery.
finished wreath number 1
finished wreath number 2. these 2 are very similar as they are not far away from each other. part of the trick to making any wreath (purchased or made) work with your decor is to consider the rest of the elements you are using in the room. in our case this year we had white, gold, natural materials (ie.sticks, pinecones etc), mercury glass and green.
using at least 1 of each ensures you have a wreath that will tie in and not stand out.
sometimes this means making your wreath would be easier as trying to purchase the perfect wreath in a store can lead to the aforementioned muttering.
there is also nothing wrong with purchasing a wreath and removing/adding elements to make it work.
to make it easier, ornaments can be wired into groups of three first leaving a long tail of wire and then added to the wreath as a joint unit. this gives a nice cluster and then you aren't yelling at an inanimate object about not sitting where you wanted it.
never happened before to me i swear.
FELT WREATHS:
I also made a few yarn wrapped wreaths this year. Remember the straw wreaths for a steal?
This couldn't be easier so I won't insult your intelligence with a tutorial of pictures. Pick yarn you like, wrap around wreath until covered. It takes a while, have patience.
First up is the candy cane wreath:
once you finish wrapping the red, grab a thick wooly looking white yarn and do regular intervals around the wreath to give it a stripey appeal. done. easy right?
Last for this year in the wreath department is our winter wonderlandish wreath.
complete with the bottlebrush trees that are all the rage this year, 3 types of felt flowers, 2 vintage ornaments, giant crystal snowflake and a happy little pinecone.
How to make those little felt flowers: quick quick style
cut out a circle of felt. cut that circle in a circle pattern.
start rolling felt from outside end until all rolled up and you have a modern flower. you can either hot glue the bum together or sew with embroidery floss. my hands have had it with hot glue for now so, i used embroidery floss for this project. that's what i mean by quick quick. i also just realized i forgot to take a photo of the rolled felt flower off the wreath. oops don't hate me. if you need one i can take it and send it to you
you could definitely just use this type of flower. it looks modern and sleek. if you want to add more variation, keep reading.
now for the fringe-style flowers. you need a rectangle of felt. the bigger the felt, the bigger the flower. these are for example about 5" wide and 8" long. fold in half lengthwise and make slices all along the unfolded side. if you cut the folded side you get a loopy flower. so this is a 2 in 1 style.
begin rolling the felt still folded until the end
you can now glue the end or sew the end together.
again with my aversion to hot glue during this project, i used floral picks to attach to the wreaths.
So brings the end of my Christmas wreathing this year.
Have you made anything amazing this holiday season?
Have a great day,
Meg
